“PRESENTE!”

CCDS remembers our leaders and friends who died since our last convention in 2009.

They paved a path that lives on before us

Manning Marable

Manning Marable a founding co-chair of CCDS and served until the 1999 convention in North Carolina and then as a member of the CCDS Advisory Board. He founded and directed the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University in NYC, authored several books and is remembered as an activist scholar.

Eric Quezada

Eric Quezada served as a co-chair of the Committees of Correspondence in the 1990s. In an article in the San Francisco press, “A true revolutionary, our friend, our brother…..he lived and died organizing his community, La Misión. Eric presented a moving tribute to Charlene Mitchell at the 2009 convention in San Francisco.

Brandon Wallace

Brandon Wallace was elected to the National Coordinating Committee of CCDS following the 2009 convention. An activist, poet and blogger in Birmingham, Alabama, he participated in the Southern Regional committee and on the Democracy Charter committee and contributed to the Mobilizer.

Toshi-Aline Ohta Seeger

Toshi-Aline Ohta Seeger was a mother, organizer, activist and filmmaker … and an essential part of all of Pete Seeger’s work, her husband of 45 years. Toshi served on the Advisory Board of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism[2] and on the Advisory Board of The Rosenberg Fund for Children[3]. She was the inspiration and mover behind the annual Clearwater Festival dedicated to environmental justice on the banks of the Hudson River north of Manhattan in Westchester County. This year’s festival drew 15,000 people and 1,000 volunteers.

Fred Hicks

Fred Hicks was a leader and founding member of CCDS Committees of Correspondence. Well known for his activism in Louisville, KY, Fred was also a University of Louisville professor emeritus in the department of anthropology. Active in Louisville’s open housing movement in the 1960s, Fred also served in leadership of the Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, the Southern Organizing Committee, and the Kentucky Interfaith Taskforce on Latin America and the Caribbean.

Jon Fromer

Jon Fromer
We remember Jon as a people’s musician and songwriter. He was a comrade and dear friend who was tireless in his contributions to social movements for justice. At the 2009 convention in San Francisco, Jon organized and led a workshop on “Working Class Culture and Movement Building” sponsored by the Bay Area Billie Holiday Collective of which Jon was a key force behind for decades. Jon was the key organizer of the annual Bolshevik Café, a fundraising cultural event for progressive organizations in northern California, including CCDS.
Jon will be remembered at the annual protest of the School of the Americas at Ft. Benning, Georgia where Jon gave of his talents in songs each year. This year, November 22-24, the main stage at the SOA protest will be adorned with a quilt made of his many movement t-shirts. CCDS will have a literature table and workshops at this important protest of U.S. imperialism in Latin America. Jon’s music and spirit will continue on in the fight for social justice.

LA LUTA CONTINUA!
WE WILL CARRY IT ON!!!!

Socialist Education Project webinar

New Political Openings in the Time of Covid-19

Socialist Education Project online webinar

Cosponsored by CCDS and Liberation Road

Monday, April 27, 9pm (eastern time) — Zoom link below

Featuring Marilyn Albert and Bill Fletcher Jr.

Systemic disaster or shock can open possibilities for social change not available in the US during normal times; the Covid-19 pandemic is such a crisis. The right wing will seek to exploit the situation; what will the Left do? The CCDS discussion will present an overview and examples, with two speakers:

Bill Fletcher — How the Right is using the crisis to advance its agenda.

The presentations will be followed by Q&A and discussion, including suggestions for new ways of online organizing..

the speakers:

Marilyn Albert is a retired Registered Nurse with over 40 years of experience; she worked in the New York City hospitals for most of her career. She has been active in the movement for single payer health care since the 1970s. She is a founding member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and lives in Richmond, California.

Bill Fletcher Jr. is a former president of TransAfrica Forum, writer, commentator trade unionist and activist. His books include: The Man Who Fell From the Sky (fiction); Claim No Easy Victories: The Legacy of Amilcar Cabral (co-editor); ‘They’re Bankrupting us’ – And Twenty other myths about unions; and Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and A New Path Toward Social Justice.

THE TELECONFERENCE will consist of 3 two-hour sessions, each with 45 minutes for Q&A. The first will begin at noon EST, followed by an hour break. A second will be from 3-5pm EST. A final session will take place from 6- 8 pm EST. A headset & webcam, or a smartphone, is recommended

THE 21st CENTURY HAS BROUGHT NEW FORMS OF CAPITALISM – from the globalization of production, to financial speculation, to new kinds of cross-national class formations. Paralleling these changes in the nature of national and global capitalism have been new resistance from Arab Spring, the Occupy Movement, to the Pink Tide in Latin America, to international boycott campaigns, to global worker mobilizations to fight Covid 19. Given the rise of neoliberal globalization, drone warfare, crippling economic blockades, a burgeoning climate crisis, and new forms of rightwing populism organized around racism, sexism and revanchism, it is time for the left to have a serious conversation about twenty-first century imperialism.